Tag: work at home mom

To be a stay at home mom is one of the greatest sacrifices you can make as a mother for yourself and your family. It’s a great gift of self and time which you invest in your family in other to nurture your kids and see them grow into the wonderful people you envision for them.

Being available and attentive to their needs and also taking care of your own needs, however, can be a tough act to balance out. When you choose to stay home and raise your kids, you give up that opportunity to follow your career path. Perhaps you were working in a financial institution and you dreamed of climbing the career ladder and getting to become a bank executive. But it never came to be because you chose to get off the ramp and stay home to raise your children.

Depending on how you choose to manage it, this decision can make a life-changing impact on your personal life both for good or for bad. That is why I am writing this piece why every stay at home mom must have a home business. This is because a Home business will help ameliorate the feeling of not having a way to express your self professionally. It can also be the key to unlocking your creative side which may lead to a full-time business, something you will never have imagined you could do should you have been pursuing your original career. To help you get along

Here are 5 reasons why a Stay at home mom must have a home business

You will get a creative outlet for your skills:

For some people, you may have started your stay at home mom journey mid-career, meaning that you have had the opportunity to work in a corporate establishment before and you had to stop because you started having babies and you found out you could not cope with having your kids in a daycare or maybe you are feeling your children need you now.

This means you already have skills which you have acquired and would like to use. A home business provides you with a creative outlet to make use of such skills while still staying home to raise your children.For instance, no matter what kind of skill you have now, you can write about it via blogging. This will create an avenue for you to share your experiences and help those who may be on the same skill level as you are or looking to have your skills set. To learn how to start a blog, read my post on how to start a blog when you are not techy.

You will earn money as a stay at home mom and contribute financially to your household:

When you get used to living on two incomes, it’s usually a struggle to live on one even if that one income is enough to cater for all your needs. There is an emotional comfort that earning your own money in life gives to you. It can never be replaced with what you get from your spouse. While choosing to stay home for the kids may have been a joint decision from the both of you, it doesn’t still replace the fact that sometimes you feel like you are contributing nothing finance wise to your household. A home business can be a way to help you fulfill that need.

You are setting an example for your Girlchild

I wasn’t so concerned about posterity when I had my first child which was a boy because I felt, well he had his dad to look up to, I am not a man so I do not have any manly attributes to pass on to him.

This all changed when I had my daughter, suddenly I was flustered because I now realized I now had one of my type who will likely look up to me and try to imitate me. I began to think about who I was and what kind of mom I will like my daughter to see me as.

Believe me, this thoughts and feelings contributed to my starting this Blog. I wanted more than just running my training outfit or working in a firm, I wanted to be able to own multiple streams of income, own multiple businesses and above all still be available for my kids as they grow up.Don’t underestimate the power of emotions that having a kid bring to your life.

So if you are a stay at home mom now, who may be wondering where do I begin from, I am dissatisfied with my life the way it is, my finances are stretched, my energy is sapped and I do not know how to start, begin by thinking of what your kids will think of you when they grow up. For ideas on types of home business, you can start, read my post on 10 trending home business ideas for the year 2018.

Salehoo : Vetted suppliers for your dropshipping business

You will be less depressed and unhappy

Statistics from a Gallup poll conducted indicate that stay at home moms are more likely to express negative emotions such as worry, anger, depression, and anxiety as compared to moms who work.

Ever met any of your colleagues from high school or even college mates who are doing extremely well on their jobs, and you felt like life just left you behind because you chose to be a stay at home mom. I know how it feels like, that’s why I wrote 6 things a stay at home mom struggles with. In that post, I chronicled the feelings of a stay at home mom.

I also provided solutions to those feelings, I will like you to take time to read it. Starting a home business can help you be less depressed and unhappy. I am not saying this is the only reason you may be unhappy right now but no matter what it is you are going through having that time in which you run your own business can be therapeutic and help fulfill a need that may have been worse if you are not.

You are preparing for the empty nest syndrome

No matter how long it takes, raising kids will not be forever, there will come a time when your kids have all grown up and flown the coop as the saying goes. This is usually a scary time for women if you have devoted your full time to care for them.

I know some will say I can always go back to the workforce, the problem is that the workforce may not be that easy to get back to because of change in times and competition from younger people. I belong to a community of job seekers where they are continuously complaining about not getting the jobs they want because of age.

While it may not be expressly stated because it’s against the law, Its often a reason why we have a lot of old people who want a job but can’t get one. A home business will provide you the opportunity to keep doing what you love and keeps you going when everyone has left home. You might even find that you now have more time to devote to making it a big-time business if it has not grown into one. I believe you can say it’s your own job security for a lifetime.

Melissa&Doug

Life Needs a Backup Plan:

Here is one reason that you cannot pass up even if you did the other reasons I have listed above. That is the fact that Life happens, you may lose your Hubby, or he may lose his ability to earn perhaps via accident or lay off. You may also get divorced and find yourself without a job and kids to look after. That is why a Home business is never an alternative or a choice but an obligation you owe yourself and family to ensure you live a life that is worth it.

4 Things you Must Do to Jump start your Newyear as a Home business owner

It’s the last of day of the year 2017, today is probably a day of reflection for many people. It’s a time to recheck the different areas of your life to see how you ran throughout this year.

Those different areas could be your home, marriage, finances, relationships, business or career depending on which divide you fall into. You may be wondering how to Jumpstart your Newyear in the area of your business so as to ensure that you have an early start for the first quarter of the year.

Today will be that day you will be wondering how you have fared throughout the year if you had plans for the year you may want to pull out your plans and compare notes to see what you achieved.

While for some, this is an exercise that will bring exciting news as they see that they have achieved all that they have set out to achieve. For some, it may be sad because they could not achieve all they set their mind to, whichever divide you fall into, thank God that you are alive to make new plans and dream again.

Today you can take a look at those areas and begin to work and strategize to see how to take a different approach to achieve success where you failed before. In doing this I would like to share with you

4 strategies to be mindful of as you Jumpstart the New year as a Home business owner.

1 Planning ,Strategy & execution:

You may have started the outgoing year without planning or strategy talk more about execution. If this was how you ran the outgoing year, then do not repeat this same thing in the incoming year, even if you are afraid of planning, its time to whip out a Planner and begin to plan for the next year. You have to set down a laid down path to your success for the coming year if you want to Jumpstart your new year on a good note. To learn more about how to plan your week please read my post on how to kick chaos and plan your week as home business owner.

It’s a wise saying that he who fails to plan, plans to fail, Its time therefore for you to do some research on what strategies you will employ to ensure that your plan is executed. A big plan and strategy on paper without execution is useless.

Honest Bloggers Binder by Sarah Titus

For you to execute all that you have written down, here is what you need to do

– Write down what goal you need to achieve per quarter

-Break it down into targets for the week

-Break down your targets into daily to-do lists and mark it as done once you have achieved it

– Measure and Test: You have to measure your success and see if your strategy is working. For instance, if your quarterly goal is to reach a pageview of say 3000 per month, then you have to write down your initial pageview before you begin your strategy.

You can then track your progress by writing down your weekly stats to see if you are making progress or not. This will help you to change strategy should what you not be seeing any results.

– Finally, if you have got the hang of it, rinse and repeat if it’s working for you.

2Your Product.

Your product or service is what you are offering to the consumer in exchange for their resources, that’s how you make money. For you to jumpstart your Newyear you have to take a good look at your product line and outline what income streams you expect to produce your income this year. In doing this, here are some pertinent questions you need to answer

-Does your product meet the consumer desires? is there a demand for your product?

-Do you think your product makes an impact on the consumer’s mind? if it does not, then its time to either repackage it to make it more attractive or throw it out completely and find something else that is of value to your consumer.

-If you are a blogger, its time you did your audience analysis, what are the characteristics of the audience you desire? and are you attracting same? if you are not, what do you need to do to attract your desired audience?

Everyone will be willing to pay good money for what they consider valuable to them, so in checking the characteristics of your product, here are key points you should consider

– Is it Unique, perhaps not in content but in approach to the consumer’s needs

-Does it have a mass appeal at least to your target market

-Is it simple to use, that is you can easily explain how it works without any issues

If your product or service answers all of this questions then you are good to go. If it does not, then you have to go back to the drawing board to either craft out a new product or re-design what you already have to answer the following questions

3 Your Finances

In this Newyear, as a business owner, you will have to take a good look at your finances both in the business and home.Perhaps its time you set goals for the amount of money you want to make per month. Do you know that setting goals often forces your subconscious mind to begin to think of ways of meeting it?

If you set a specific financial goal for your business, then you will force yourself to do everything possible to meet your goals because you know that in meeting it, you will attain a level of success that will give you the kick you need to go higher.

If it is your personal goals that you need to deal with, then go ahead and set them but remember that there has to be a pipeline that feeds it. For example, if your personal goal is to be able to save a certain amount by the end of the quarter, then you have to look for what will feed in that pipelines in other to meet that goal. It may be through budgeting, cost cutting or increasing your ability to earn more.

Your ability to successfully set a financial goal for your home business will give you a boost that will enable you to feel better as you go on to meet your life’s needs. If you are able to meet most of your financial needs as they arise, you often feel successful because that’s what it is. Your business or career is that pipeline that enables you to achieve the life goals you have set for yourself by giving you the needed finances to meet it.

4 Your Marketing

In the online business world, especially if you are a home business owner you can’t do without marketing, in fact, marketing is the lifeblood of any business. So for your business, you must have a marketing plan in place. You have to be deliberate in following through with your plans if you want to see tangible results and jumpstart your Newyear.

In your planning stage, you have already itemized what worked and what didn’t work for you this year in your business, so the next stage is to take what worked and plan how to make it work the more this year in other to yield better results. You can also put new marketing plans in place in other to see if this will make your business better.

If you have no idea how to prepare your marketing plan then its time you did a little bit of research, search for marketing plans that have to do with your niche. For example, If you want to start a blog or perhaps you are already blogging but you are not seeing results, its time to check out what your competitor who is doing better is doing so you can know what to adapt and tweak to fit your own audience.

To wrap this up, I do want you to know that running a home business is no mean feat but you have to be willing to put all you have into it to make it a success, as I champion you on via my blog.

Thank you for reading my blog all through this year, I wish you a very successful Business year ahead. God bless you and see you next year.

When you make up your mind that you want to work from home, the first question that will usually pop into your mind is how do I go about this?, should I start looking for work from home job? or should I start a home business?.

The jury is still out there as to what is the best route to take, for some people it is a difficult decision to make especially if you are coming from a place where you were working outside your home and had a stable income which you brought into your home. What this means is that you already have a lifestyle which you have set up your home and of course choosing to work from home means that you are putting that lifestyle into a jeopardy because you will move from a place of stable income to unstable income or perhaps just one income from your hubby.

In today’s post, I will be comparing the Home business and the work from home Job, the Pro’s and Con’s perhaps this may help some of you who may be ambulating on what route to take.

First of all, before you decide to make the decision of working from home, you must make some certain preparations, I do know some people tend to jump in with both feet to either swim or sink. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t this is because needs are different and makeups are different.

There will be those who will take the option of choosing to work from home without taking time to plan things out perhaps because they fear that If they take the time to plan things out, they may procrastinate and never make that decision.

While some like to plan their approach, they save up some money to cushion the times they will be taking to build their business from home before resigning from their jobs.
I will prefer that you plan your route before ever you make that decision to quit your job and start working from home, this may mean cutting down on some niceties in other to save up your money to help cushion your family needs while you build your business or find work from home jobs that will replace your initial income.

This planning ahead of time will help you stay true to what you are working on and prevent you from running into financial stress which may force you to return to your former job.
It is also much easier to run your business or work from home when you don’t have to worry about finances at least for the beginning stage until things kick off.
If you are already a stay at home mom, it makes your decision easier because you may not need to do extra planning since you are already used to living on one income anyway. You may have to perhaps save up some income or initial capital outlay that you will need to start your business though.

Having highlighted the thoughts above here are the pros and cons of starting a Home Business versus a Work from home Job in other to earn your income from home.

Pro’s of a work at Home Job
-You can apply the skills you already have on a job that is immediately available and begin to earn almost immediately once you are able to secure a job. ( often times to shorten this time lapse of looking for a work from home job, its best to start looking and secure one before you resign your day job)

-You do not have to have an initial cash outlay hence you can start on virtually zero cash except for perhaps money spent on registering on Job sites that specialize in hiring for remote positions.

-You do not need to draw up a business plan or a strategic marketing plan for your work at home job since you will be trading your skills for money.

-Other people set your targets and there are specific tasks which you are set to deliver and your work is finished for the day. Your work is not continuous till when you are tired as in a Home business

-You get some benefits such as Health insurance if it applies to your job.

-You can choose to take a holiday if your work is a freelance job meaning you choose when you work and when you don’t.

-Your remuneration is fixed and you know exactly how much you will earn at the end of the month.

Con’s of Work from home jobs
-There are a lot of scam work at home Job sites out there, therefore it takes a lot of time to sift out the genuine ones, this often takes time. To learn about the genuine ones read my post on 10 best sites for work from home jobs.

-There is a limit to how much you can earn per month since you trade time for money, you will have to work for a certain amount of hours before you can earn your desired amount.

-Your income is entirely dependent on the company you work for, meaning that should there be a shift in purpose and you don’t fit in you will lose your job and income.

-Because it takes time to find what works in the work at home job market, you may find your self-waiting for a while without any income at all. What this means is that you situational change is out of your control.

-For the same skills which you may have been paid more when you had to clock into the office, you may be paid less and if you are in a dire position you may find that you are working more for less pay.

Pros of starting a Home Based Business
-You are your own boss so you can control how much you earn from your business, hence there is no limit to how much you can earn.

-You do not have to clock in with any supervisor so you can set your own time and work at your own pace

-There is no cap on how much you can earn since you can scale your business as it grows and expands.

-You can apply the skills you already have to your new business especially if your home business ties into what was your career before you quit your job to work from home, hence shorten your learning curve in running your business. Time to profit will also be shortened.

-There is freedom of doing whatsoever helps your business to excel without having to check in with a company to see if it fits into their organizational goals.

-You don’t have to look for a job or depend on someone hiring you for you to create your own income, you already have a job so you get on with it.

-You are in control of your own destiny.

Cons of Starting a Home-based business
-You may need some initial capital to start your business, and because business takes time to grow, it may mean that you will run for a time without any income coming in at all.

-You may not begin to earn immediately you begin to work unlike the work at home job option that you get paid once you start working.

-There is no fixed task that says your job has ended for the day you may find that you are continuously working until you get tired. You are sort of the business and the business is you, this means that you have to be super self-motivated to keep at it until it begins to yield a return.

-If your business should fail, you may have to return to a day job because you will probably need money to foot your bills.

-A home business takes a lot of planning and a strategic input coupled with a lot of marketing before it can take off and sometimes this may take longer than you expected.

-Sometimes you will have to invest resources, money, time and energy to learn how to run your business properly in other for you to see a difference and begin to make a profit.

Pro’s and Con’s of home business versus work from home Job

Having laid out the pros and cons associated with choosing either route when deciding to work from home, I have to say that the good thing about these options is that they can be combined, there is no hard and fast rule that says you must stick to one.

Some people in other to meet up with their financial needs may choose to take a part-time work from home jobs while they slowly build their business to replace their former income.
For some, especially if you are a stay at home mom, you may choose to build your home business slowly while still maintaining the lifestyle you had before until you begin to see profit in your business
For whatever route you choose to take or the combination thereof, what matters is doing what makes it easy to pursue and attain your dreams of being a stay at home mom who is doing what she loves and at the same time taking care of your loved ones.

Do you have any other Pros and cons of starting a Home Based Business versus a work from home Job? drop your comment below

I know that I champion starting home businesses that are solely run online, but I am also aware that a variety of skills could sometimes mean that one does not have the passion or skill to pursue an online business. That is where the offline Home business comes into play.

While you can start a Home Business that is basically offline like the ones I will mention below, you cannot afford not to market it online. This because marketing your business online and giving it an online presence even if its just a FaceBook page or an Instagram page will ensure that you succeed.

You can start these businesses at home but they require more local work with individuals or going to other locations with your home as the base. These positions are often just as lucrative as the online businesses but require a little more infrastructure or hands-on work.

Handbags on Bonanza Marketplace

Here are 13 businesses you can do as an Offline Home Business.

-In-Home Childcare Provider – If you have a big enough home you can use a portion of it to provide childcare. You can make from 100 to 200 dollars per child depending on your location and the age of the children. You will need to get a license for your state before you start. The good thing about child care is that once you provide good services, you can make more money because word travels about your business and provides you with recurring income.

-Event / Wedding / Party Planner – If you like planning parties from birthday, to weddings, to anniversary or other events, you can make a good living doing it. You’ll need to make connections with caterers, bakers and others who can help you with the parties. You’ll manage everything and put it all together and make sure nothing goes wrong.

-Music Teacher – If you are good with music and know how to teach people to play an instrument, sing, or perform you can become a music teacher from your home. You may need to get a background check to work with kids if the parents are going to leave.

-Soap Maker / Jewelry Maker / Knitter – Making artisan soaps, jewelry, knitting, crocheting and selling the creations at your local farmer’s market, thrift store and even online at a store like Etsy.com is a great way to earn more money in a business of your own. If this is your passion and you do not know how to start an Etsy shop, read my post on Guidelines on starting an etsy shop

-Public Speaker –Do you have a motivational story to tell, have you achieved success that you can help others achieve? If so, you might consider becoming a public speaker. You can get on various speakers lists and make quite a good living speaking. This requires travel, so it’s not working “at” home but your home can be your base.

Copper Home Ornaments by Amara

-Seamstress – If you can sew, you can create a business in a variety of ways from making custom-made clothing or purses to alterations. You can sell online and locally to custom shops by offering a percentage of sales to local boutiques.

-House Cleaner – It might not be romantic but there is a lot of money to be earned in the housekeeping business. People need help due to their busy lives and you can provide that help. You’ll go to their location to do the cleaning, of course, but you can run everything else from your home office.

-Backyard Gardener – If you have at least 1/2 an acre, you can start gardening as a business. You can grow salad vegetables, herbs and more and sell them to local restaurants and even some grocery stores, or set up a stand at your local farmer’s market. If you live in the right location you can set up a stand right there.

Bebe Fashion Accessories

-Pet Groomer – If you love pets, you can clean them and groom them so that they look good. You can do this right from home if you create a little grooming shop in an extra room. Check your local laws to find out the rules of regulation.

-Personal Chef – Do you like cooking special meals? If so you can do that for people in their homes. You shop for the ingredients, cook them in the client’s house, and then freeze them in labeled containers for the client to heat up later during the week. If baking is your passion you can take a look at my post on how to start an online baked goods business.

-Furniture Maker – Have a knack for building things with woodworking equipment? You can create new items from scratch or you can refurbish and then sell older items. This business can be quite lucrative and start as a hobby. if you like to refurbish old furniture and resell it, you may find that eBay is your best bet for selling your refurbished items. often you will find that you may find old and discarded furniture which you can repurpose and sell for a profit. Take a look at my post to see places where you can re sell used items.

-Landscaping Services – Got a lawn mower and some equipment you can start a landscaping business. Even if all you do is mow lawns and edge them you can earn a good living during the season. You can easily make 30 to 40 dollar an hour.

-Interior Decorator – If you have a way with color, staging furniture and making a house feel like a home you might want to start an interior decorating business. You will earn money based on the total budget so you’ll need to be good at getting discounts from suppliers. Another interesting thing about this line of job is that you can earn money from designing the Home and picking our the materials needed while you outsource the main job of actually implementing the design to someone else.

That way you are able to get more time to put into your creative passion of designing the concepts.

If you want a good place to get very good decorative pieces for your home design projects then consider looking at Amara a business that deals with Home decor accessories, they feature different categories of Home fragrances, Lighting, bedroom kitchen, and other decorative accessories that make a home look beautiful. They have great goods that are currently on sale. you may want to check it out here.

Duvet and Soft Furnishings by Amara

Want to learn about 10 more business Ideas for the fall season, click on this post.

H&M Fashion

Hopefully, these ideas helped you think of something you can do from home. Being a mom is a difficult job but if you can do something to earn money as a work at home mom it will make everything a lot easier. No need to commute to work, buy expensive clothing, and in some cases, you don’t even need child care.

At the very least, you’ll be able to work around your children’s schedules so that you can have a better-balanced family life.

Do you have any more Ideas for offline home business ideas, leave a comment below?

Can’t believe it but the Holidays are almost walking into us, it’s usually a time to celebrate and be merry. Being thankful is a requirement for this season, wondering what I am thankful for, read my post on 5 things I am thankful for in this year. Then you will understand where I am coming from.

Well this is the home business owner Blog and as Business owners, though we hustle all through the months, setting goals trying so much to beat them, some we trash some we don’t but in all, we are thankful that we have a life so we can try again.

Having said that, I am creating a Holiday Gift guide because the season is here, we all love to give gifts and share with loved ones, so I created this post to enable you to get some great unique gift items both for your self and friends and even kids too. No one is left out of my Holiday gift guide suggestions.

The way I will structure this Holiday Gift guide post, it will cover the closest people in your life and even others who are not so close. My post will cover gift items for yourself, baby, kids, Hubby or significant other, friends, colleagues.

To shop from this link just click on the picture it will take you to the page for the items.

Disclosure: there are affiliate links associate with this post, please see my disclosure policy in the Menu above.

Gift For yourself

Yeah Mama, you should start with picking out a gift for yourself after all that hustling and taking care of others during the year, you deserve a gift to make you feel good, so take a look to these ideas for the perfect Holiday Gift Idea for the oncoming Holiday season.

Gift Ideas for Teens.

We know this is the age for picky specific gifts and perhaps expensive gifts too because they are at that age of being quite impressionable and trying to fit into the latest fab that is on the move, but we can be creative in helping them make a choice that is reasonable and within budget too. Take a look at these Gift ideas for your teenage kids

Gift items for Babies, toddlers, and Children

Depending on at what age they are, you can always find something that is unique not so pricey but at the same time interesting for them. Because I believe in helping kids cultivate their reading culture I will always include a book in this section so take a look at some ideas from this section